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Friday, August 03, 2007

There's something truly strange about this. East Germany, especially under the iron rule of the former Communist Party, went out of its way to welcome foreigners and celebrated international solidarity. And yet, we (well, we in the West) always kind of knew, that the average East German was substantially more conservative (a Spiessbuerger) than the average West German citizen. It didn't come as a great surprise then that after the fall of the wall and the purchase of East Germany with the West German mark (aka the 'unification') xenophobia and racist attacks would be much worse in the East than they were in the West.

Things have deteriorated ever since. During the recent soccer world cup leading politicians of the Labor Party (a party represented in the federal government) warned people belonging to visible ethnic minorities not to venture too far into the East because their safety could not be guaranteed. For German government politicians to acknowledge that law and order could not be guaranteed everywhere in the country was a colossal kind of some sort of defeat for the liberal democracy that Germany undoubtedly is these days.

Since then incredibly so, things have got worse. Reports suggest that police officers fail in their duties toward victims of racially motivated attacks and other forms of violence. For instance, recently a Vietnamese family was attacked by several adult males from the neighbouring flat, they gained entry by kicking the door in. Eventually the vandals left and the Vietnamese family called the police in. Officers duly showed up, interviewed the attackers and left. Wisely the Vietnamese family left their home and slept elsewhere. The Neonazis returned that very same night and vandalised the family home. Police was nowhere to be seen.